Hynix Introduces DDR500 Memory Chips.

Hynix Semiconductor, a surviving South Korea-based memory company under attack, said today it has developed a 500MHz 256Mb DDR SDRAM chips for use with personal computers and will begin its full-scale volume production in August 2003.

The newly introduced DDR500 functioning at 500MHz will be available in FBGA, TSOP or QFP package. The DDR500 products are designed for gaming market enthusiasts who tend to require higher frequencies and system performance.

DDR500 will be manufactured using the company’s Prime Chip 0.13-micron process technology. Hynix expects the demand for such advanced memory to be relatively strong given that there is a market for high-performance memory.

The only concern now about Hynix’s DDR500 memory is Hynix’s availability to market the products. It is obviously too expensive to export memory chips into the USA to memory module makers like OCZ or Corsair because of taxes, whereas the USA seems to be the largest consumer of such expensive DRAM chips. The company also owns a fab in Oregon, however, there are doubts that Hynix will be able to supply all its current customers with enough chips produced in Oregon facility and also ramp up mass-production of DDR500 there.

It is now logical to expect Hynix to concentrate on expensive memory products in order to lower the impact of penalty duties imposed by the US FTC.